Mike's Minute: A Government-run supermarket is a fool's idea

The most shameful promise this election came from Labour, who promised in 2017 to increase the breast screening age, and then for six years didn’t do anything.

And now they are promising it again, as though you are supposed to believe them and things will be different.

The most ridiculous promise came yesterday, suggesting Labour are now wanting to run a Four Square.

It would be a Government-run supermarket, or at least they want to help you get into one. They want to be an investor in the supermarket business.

When the market study, as done by the Commerce Commission, was first mooted by David Clark, who in his own way has done as much damage to the economy as anyone, he didn’t rule out the Government getting involved in the supermarket business.

At the time we laughed and ridiculed it because it was so absurd but we didn’t, or at least I didn't, actually think it would lead anywhere.

To be frank, it still won't lead anywhere because the election for Labour is over. But the fact that things have got this mad and this unhinged shows you just how tragic it has all become.

David Clark by the way, in the current Commerce Commission market study into banks, has been mentioned as well. Not only did he cycle his way through the Covid lockdown, not only did he want to run a supermarket, but his CCCFA reform might well be the biggest reason first-home buyers in particular have not been able to get access to money.

His initial reforms were so haphazard that the banks screamed at him to not go as far as he did. When he ignored them, he got dragged back to the table to have another crack, a crack he suggested had sorted matters. Fast forward to the study and the banks are busy telling us it's been a complete disaster, and some banks are skirting the rules simply to be able to get people into homes.

Armed with that intel, why wouldn’t a genius like that and his mates want to dabble in retail?

Given Labour's record on delivery, what fool would even consider going into business with them selling apples? Or any other grocery item?

Government-run supermarkets is the stuff of communism and third world backwaters.

And as close as we may have gotten to that status, surely most of us are bright enough to work out they have completely and utterly lost the plot.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.